US: Holiday travel for December 2018 is going to get busy

A record-breaking 112.5m Americans will travel during the December holiday season, a 4.4% increase over last year, according to AAA predictions. That's more than one-third of all Americans who will be travelling, and it's the highest number since AAA has been tracking holiday travel. For the more than 102m people who are driving, global mobility analytics company INRIX estimates that travel times in the busiest US cities could be as much as four times longer than normal. Those cities include New York City, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. AAA Travel says the holiday travel period starts Saturday, December 22, 2018, and ends Tuesday, January 1, 2019. Nearly 46m passengers will travel on US airlines during the airlines' holiday period, a 5.2% increase over 2017, according to Airlines for America, the US airline trade group. The airlines have an expanded definition of that travel time: the 18 days from Thursday, December 20, through Sunday, January 6. "With airfares at historic lows, travellers are choosing to fly on US airlines in record numbers, especially during the busy holiday season," A4A VP John Heimlich said. The airlines expect daily passenger volume to range from 2.1 to 2.9m, with Friday, December 21, Thursday, December 20, and Wednesday, December 26, predicted to be the busiest travel days. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are expected to be the lightest travel days.<br/>